The Hindu Business Line : My Dollarstore plans leasing brand to retailers, mall owners

While My Dollarstore would be supplying the merchandise, retailers and mall owners would be operating its stores and running customer care programmes on its behalf.

Purvita Chatterjee

Mumbai, Sept. 20 Adopting a new retailing strategy for the Indian market, Sankalp Retail Value Stores, the master franchise for My Dollarstore Inc, is planning to lease its brand to retailers and mall owners with a shop-in-shop format. Having tried out this concept with the Bangalore-based Prateek mall recently, it is now approaching retailers with a similar concept.

Explaining the dynamics of running its shop-in-shop format, Mr Soumitra Ghatak, CEO, My Dollarstore, says, “We are open to new formats for the Indian market. The mall owners and retailers could well be managing and operating our stores while we could be earning commissions from the business.”

While My Dollarstore would be supplying the merchandise, retailers and mall owners would be operating its stores and even running customer care programmes on its behalf. “At this stage, we are looking at opportunities and wherever there are synergies with retailers and mall owners, we would consider having a shop-in-shop format for our brand of stores.”

Currently, My Dollarstore has 47 standalone stores across 28-30 towns in the country.

Apart from the high-streets and malls, My Dollarstore has also moved in with petrol stations and IT parks. “We are looking at new avenues and vertical expansion of our stores is on,” says Mr Ghatak. It plans launching another 11 stores.

Besides, the retailer is also considering below-the-line advertising and planning some amount of interactive advertising across malls.

Retailing primarily European and American brands, the stores sell products across categories such as health & beauty, foods and general merchandise. With its USP of the Rs 99 price point, My Dollarstore expects its ‘width and depth’ of imported brands is what will make it acceptable to other retailers and mall-owners.

As Mr Ghatak says, “We have a range of imported brands which is not necessarily available in other stores, bringing about an American flavour for shoppers. The business runs on high volumes and less margins and the pricing of Rs 99 is our key differentiator. Our stores generate footfalls and this makes us favourable to mall owners.”

Launched in 2004, My Dollarstore buys its products in bulk from the international manufacturers. Recently, there were talks of the Future Group (through Future Capital) picking up private equity in the company. However, he says, “There are yet no private equity investors in the company and the majority shares are currently held by two independent directors of the company.”